Joseph Asagai

Joseph Asagai was a Nigerian intellectual and Black Power activist during the 1950s.

Biography
Joseph Asagai was born in Nigeria to a Yoruba family, and he studied abroad in Canada during the 1950s. Asagai was a supporter of the Black Power movement, calling the straightening of nappy hair "mutilation" and criticizing "assimilationism" among African-Americans. In 1959, he met Beneatha Younger at college, and he brought her meaningful gifts whenever he returned from Africa. Ultimately, he convinced her to reject assimilationism (leading to her breakup with her other date, George Murchison) and to marry him and come with him to Nigeria, where she could practice medicine.